THE total cost of making six senior council chiefs redundant as part of the biggest ever jobs shake up at the Council House is just short of £900,000 - the Advertiser/Messenger can exclusively reveal

The cash has been set aside from Bromsgrove District Council's capital reserve fund, with the permission of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Five of the six officers, who either failed to retain their old posts or who have been unsuccessful in becoming part of the new team, will leave within the next two to three weeks.

The six will receive redundancy payments ranging from £12,000 to £28,000, making a total of just short of £160,000.

In addition to this figure the council is adding in excess of £355,000 to the staff's pension 'pot' as most are not nearing the retiring age of 60.

All local government employees can retire at 50 provided they have completed 35 years' service.

This applies to most of the staff who are about to leave.

The restructure is part of the council's drive towards its subsequent improvement and recovery after many aspects of the services it delivers were found to be failing.

The council plans to set aside £1.25m to pay for redundancies.

After the six have been paid off, it is expected the remainder - amounting to £373,000, will be swallowed up by further payouts when the next phase of the jobs restructure, involving the lower management tiers take place.

The council's cabinet will meet tonight (Wednesday) with press and public barred from the meeting to approve the payouts.

The district council's chief executive, Sue Nixon, said: "I am bound by issues of professional integrity and confidentiality between employer and employee and am not in a position to discuss any element of this."